Tag
by HazardousProxy
Summary: Set before my last fic. Yukina explains the not-so-tragic tale of her brother. She doesn't understand as well as she thinks she does...


AN: I believe this had less of a plot than my last one… or maybe I suck horribly and utterly at writing anything resembling fluff.

Disclaimer: I do not own Yukina, Hiei, or Forget-Me-Nots.

-----------------------------------------------------

**Tag**

No one would suspect an ice demon to care about plants, but what reason would she have to hate them? Yukina had grown from a land as empty as desolate as Hell; raised by devils in the guise of women. Being surrounded by so much life each day was a luxury she would never take for granted as long as she lived. Bless Kurama for growing a garden behind Genkai's temple.

The birds approved of the plants too, Yukina saw jovially. Two chickadees roosted in the boughs of a holly bush not five feet away from where she crouched among the Forget-Me-Nots. Kazuma might marvel at how close 'wild' animals came to the young maiden, but he was blind to how like a wild animal she was herself. Her caution came off as timidity, she supposed, or delicacy. How strange humans saw the world.

Still, it was unusual for birds to stay still so long, even around Yukina…

_Childish me_, she admonished herself. The birds had noticed Yukina's guest before she had. Not consciously, per say, but the only time the birds felt this safe was when _he_ was nearby. Over the years he had learned to bank his inner fire – now it was almost gone from her sights – but if she looked hard enough there was always a glimmer of him in her mind, as faint as a ray of hope. Yukina was glad she had memorized his aura when he had crossed her path as just a child.

The ice maiden put on her sweetest smile and stroked the silky flower petals near her side. The energy was as familiar as a heartbeat was to a human. At first its erratic chaos had scared her, then intrigued her, then comforted her, but it was always at an unseen distance. Even when they had come nose-to-nose after those long centuries both were too shocked to say anything, then subsequently there had been no chance . . . it had become their game.

Yukina would glimpse him, only to see him vanish; and in turn when Hiei was searching she would turn her face away. In was a mockery of the way others saw their relationship; the faster Yukina ran from her brother the closer Fate pushed them together. Reverse psychology. And in the brief but frequently moments they shared, the two Koorime children would laugh at how easy the world was to manipulate.

The smiling girl plucked the Forget-Me-Not from the earth as she stood up. She walked back to the warded confines of Genkai's temple caressing the petals of the lonely mountain flower, unable to stay in Hiei's sight any longer but unwilling to part with the living garden. Maybe if she put it in water –

"Yukinaaah!" bellowed Kazuma, shattering the quiet from somewhere in the temple. Suddenly much more eager to be inside, the ice demon gasped and hurried up the steps. The red-headed human male met her at the door and swept her bodily off the ground in a hug. Yukina laughed at his expression – so much like an eager puppy awaiting her command! – and bade him go back inside for tea. The happy couple chattered animatedly about everything and nothing at all, whiling away the rest of the day.

What they had overlooked, however, was the pale flower that lay just outside the closed door. The Forget-Me-Not was ironically forgotten the young girl's haste, and it fell down, down, down from her icy hand like from a tremendous height. Hiei watched the silly plant for another moment, petals still dancing on its decapitated head, and he couldn't for the life of him figure out why his throat and eyes were choked and burning.

Down in the garden, two chickadees screamed. They burst from their bush in mindless panic as if a devil cat himself were lurking close to their home.

----------------------------------------------------

AN: Alright, so the flower metaphor is a bit over the top, but I thought the birds added some nice macabre forshadowing… nn


End file.
